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BSP struggles to woo dalits

Battle for states: Party has no strong hold on Ambedkar's birthplace
Last Updated 20 November 2013, 21:18 IST

 Unperturbed by the hullabaloo of electioneering in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the white-domed memorial of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar quietly stands out in the archetypal military landscape of the cantonment town of , marking the place where the dalit icon was born in 1891.

But, just about two kilometres away, near the local bus depot, Premchand Taank, the candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that idolises Ambedkar, looks a bit perplexed. “Behenji (BSP supremo Mayawati) will address a rally in Indore today (on Wednesday). The party top brass wants me to arrange for 50 buses and take at least 3,000 people to the rally,” he says. “How can I get so many people in such a short time?”

The irony is stark. In the birthplace of Ambedkar, the BSP is only a nominal political force and its candidates are among the “also-rans” in the previous elections. Dalits account for about 15 per cent of the total electorate in Mhow. Yet, the party’s candidate in the 2008 Assembly polls, Rajesh Nagrale, ended up in the fifth position, securing just 0.80 per cent of the votes. No wonder then, that gathering 3,000 people for Mayawati’s rally in neighbouring Indore is a tall order for Premchand.

“The dalits determine the fates of the candidates in many constituencies in Madhya Pradesh. The state also has a few dalit MLAs. But the community is yet to find a strong and credible leader in the state to rally around,” says Mohanrao Wakude, an official of the Bhimrao Memorial in Mhow. “They still find themselves on the margins — socially, economically and politically.”

Before every election in Madhya Pradesh, both the BJP and the Congress try to woo the dalits, the latter often with a greater degree of success.

In its manifesto for the November 25 polls too, the Congress has made several promises for the Scheduled Castes and backward communities, like waiving loans under self-employment schemes of up to Rs 25,000, raising scholarships for students and construction of a Valmiki Dham in the capital Bhopal. The ruling BJP has promised to make it mandatory to spend 20 per cent of the MLA Local Area Development Fund in areas dominated by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.

The BSP, which champions the cause of dalits and is a formidable political force in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, so far has had limited success in Madhya Pradesh. The party contested 157 of the 230 total seats in the state Assembly in 2003 and won just two. It fielded candidates in 228 constituencies in 2008 and won from seven. The party’s share of votes increased from 7.27 per cent in 2003 to 8.97 per cent in 2008.

Mayawati, however, seems to have high hopes from Madhya Pradesh this time. She has addressed several rallies for her candidates. In the Indore rally on Wednesday, the BSP supremo blamed the successive BJP and Congress governments for the traditionally high rates of poverty and unemployment among the SC/ST and backward-caste communities.

 She also promised three acres of land for every dalit family if the BSP was voted to power.

The BSP may still have some way to go before it reaches the seat of power in Madhya Pradesh, but it can indeed complicate matters for the BJP and Congress in many of the 228 constituencies it is contesting in, particularly in the Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions of the state. And they know it.

“I have been approached by agents of both the BJP and Congress. They offered me money to withdraw myself from the contest,” says Premchand, adding, “They even tried to intimidate me when I refused.”

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(Published 20 November 2013, 21:09 IST)

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